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Rank
Rank has rarely been a significant issue in official Joe fiction, with experience seeming to count more rather than actual rank. The cartoon seemed to ignore it altogether, except in the movie, when Lt. Falcon tried to pull rank on Duke and failed. Nevertheless, the filecards take care to report the rank of all but a few Joes, and even early Cobras had equivalents ranging from E-4 to O-5. Enlisted rank insignias are rarely seen, but when they are, they are sometimes upside-down from real-life insigniasTripwire, Airborne, and Spirit's first figures. U. S. Military Pay Grades Non-Army Joes The vast majority of Joes are in the U.S. Army. But the following characters are exceptions, grouped by their service. Other branches of the US Armed Forces Air Force :Ace :Bombstrike :Countdown :Freestyle :Ghostrider :Maverick :Payload :Skystriker :Slip-Stream :Space Shot Coast Guard :Cutter Marines The "Mega Marines" of 1993 were not all Marines. Gung-Ho was an established Marine, Clutch was an established member of the Army, and Blast-Off and Mirage were not specified. :Dial-Tone :Gung-Ho :Hollow Point :Leatherneck :Lt. Stone :Mainframe :Sgt. Slaughter Navy :Deep Six :Depth Charge :Dr. Link Talbot :Harpoon :Keel-Haul :Mariner :Rampart :Shipwreck :Topside :Torpedo :Tracker :Wet-Suit :Wet Down No Rank Given :Back-Stop :Chameleon :Mercer (listed as E-5 Equivalent) :Red Dog (listed as E-5 Equivalent) :Specialist Trakker (specialist implies E-4) :Storm Shadow (as G.I. Joe member) :Taurus (listed as E-5 Equivalent) U.S. Law Enforcement (current or former) F.B.I. :Bullhorn :Mace :Red Zone :Sneak Peek S.W.A.T. :Shockwave (RAH) :Wide Scope U.S. Marshals :Bullet-Proof Non-American Operatives :Big Ben (British SAS) :Lt. Stone (British M.I.5) :Skymate (Australian SAS) Oktober Guard (Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact) :General Iron Bear :Big Bear :Col. Brekhov :Daina / Volga / Vorona :Dragonsky :Lt. Gorky :Horrorshow :Red Star :Shrage :Stormavik :Sgt. Misha Zubenkov :Wong Rank on the cartoon As mentioned above, the Sunbow cartoon generally disregarded Joe rank. Otherwise, the first-season Joe team would have been led by Ace and Doc, with the next-ranking officers being Cutter and Steeler. Shipwreck would have outranked Beach Head, and Bazooka would have been giving orders to Alpine. The various team members usually treated one another as equals, and leadership on a mission was more a matter of functionality and experience than official rank. The only Joes addressed by rank on the series were First Sergeant Hauser, Sergeant Slaughter, Lieutenant Falcon, and General Hawk, plus "colonels" Dial-Tone, Lifeline, and Shipwreck. (In their episode, Beachhead expressed surprise that the promotions had not gone to himself, Roadblock, or Slip-Stream.) G.I. Joe's leadership, as reported in "Arise, Serpentor, Arise" and "The Most Dangerous Thing in the World," had Hawk at the head of the team, followed by Duke, then Flint, and finally Beachhead and Sgt. Slaughter. In the absence of these, Scarlett, Ace, and Lady Jaye usually took the lead on their missions, and Stalker, Gung-Ho, Cover Girl, Cutter, Roadblock, Dusty, and Tollbooth also took on leadership roles at times. Shipwreck was not averse to shouting orders to his teammates, but he apparently never carried legitimate authority over anyone. In addition, Cutter sat next to Flint at Dusty's court-martial, and Slip-Stream, Wild Bill, and Admiral Ledger were alongside Hawk at Falcon's hearing. Admiral Ledger was in charge of the USS Flagg but seemed to be outside the Joe team itself, on par with Colonel Sharp. Rank in the comic Rank seems to have little to do with who is in charge of any given mission. As one example, in issues 6 and 7, Stalker (E-5, Sergeant) was put in charge of a team that included Steeler (O-2, First Lieutenant). Stalker went so far as to remind Steeler, an officer, that "this ain't no democracy." Similar examples abound; Keel-Haul should outrank everyone (including Hawk) but virtually no-one behaves as though this were true, Duke and Stalker routinely lead teams that include officers or at least higher-ranking enlisted men, and so on. During the disastrous Trucial Abyssmia mission Duke was in charge of a team that included Falcon, despite the latter's higher rank. References Category:Characters By Rank Category:Characters By Military Branch